Friday in Jerusalem

Written by Jessica Landon

Outlook at Yad Vashem

In a barrack outside Yad Vashem

Ready for the day!

Amos teaching us our first Hebrew word of the day

Theodore Herzl's grave

Michael Levin's grave

Gifts to the Lone Soldiers

Avi from the Lone Soldier Center

As seven o’clock rolled around, we packed our suitcases and headed out for breakfast before the hour bus ride to Jerusalem. Twenty, jetlagged teenagers filed out from our rooms at Kfar Yarok to the dining area, still excited for our journey in Israel to begin. But keeping our minds off of our trip was something out of the ordinary—peacocks. Everywhere we turned, a peacock would catch our eye, especially the males with their beautiful feathers.

            After breakfast, we drove to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. Though we only went around the outside of the museum, the experience was still moving. The children’s memorial featured pictures of ten young boys and girls killed in the Holocaust followed by a dark room with tons of mirrors reflecting on five candles. The sound of a monotone voice saying the names, ages, and origins of children killed in the Holocaust filled the silence. Many children’s names and information remain unknown, explaining the brief amount of information given about each child.

            Then, we walked around the rest of the vast land of Yad Vashem—bigger in size than the old city—learning about the Partisans, righteous non-Jews, trains, and concentration camps. Additionally, we learned about the importance of remembering and teaching future generations about the Holocaust. The strangest part about the tour was the juxtaposition of the beautiful view and the depressing subject. The city of Jerusalem and the awesome land caught everyone’s attention as we walked from site to site, making the memorial surreal. However, the combination of the surroundings and the memorial shocked the whole group into the experience of our Israel trip. By starting at the Holocaust memorial, a defining part of Jewish history, and seeing the land of Israel from atop the hill at Yad Vashem, we were thrown into the heart of Israel.

            Following Yad Vashem, we continued to Har Herzl to visit the graves of some of the most important people in Israeli history. Not only did we visit Theodore Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, and many of Israel’s Prime Ministers, but we also visited the graves of soldiers killed while serving in the army. Arava, our tour guide, took us to the grave of her friend Uri, who was killed in the second Lebanon War at age 21. After reading his eulogy, we reflected on the meaning of being an Israeli. As Arava emphasized, when one person is lost, it affects everybody. The army, something relatively foreign to us Americans, is so inherent to Israeli culture that understanding what it means to be a part of the army and be interconnected to the entire community of Israel through the obligation of becoming a soldier allows us to further understand what it means to be an Israeli. As someone who has already been to Israel twice, this is the first time that I have felt a deep connection to what being an Israeli is like, rather than just seeing Israel through the eyes of a tourist.

            Then, we went to see the grave of Michael Levin, a lone soldier who was killed in battle, and talked to a lone soldier who is in the army today. We had watched the documentary about Michael back in Boston in May. He talked to us about the Lone Soldier Project, the process of becoming an Israeli soldier, and the life of a lone soldier in the army. Talking to him, too, connected us to Israeli culture through an American’s point of view.

            After talking to the lone soldier and eating lunch, we headed to Machaneh Yehuda for some pre-Shabbat shopping. The hustle and bustle of the market overwhelmed many of us, but gave us an eye into Israeli life. Hassidic men walking through to get to the Old City, women buying food for their families, and Dillers meeting Dillers in the markets of Jerusalem configured the tightly-packed setup of Machaneh Yehuda. As someone who loves fresh food, I quickly became engrossed in one of my favorite places.

            After we left the market, we went to check in at our hotel and get ready for Shabbat. With a ton of time to kill before leaving for Shul, many of us went for a swim on the rooftop pool! Then, we walked a short way to an orthodox Shul for Shabbat services. The services were very intense and the restricting Mechitzah did not allow enough room for all of the girls. Although they were extremely different from the services that I go to at home (and also very tiring for us jetlagged Americans), there was a distinct pleasure that I gained from hearing the familiarity of the prayers and seeing a mass of people praying so passionately.

            The first full day of the trip was a long, but powerful, day, starting off our Israel experience with meaning and intensity. We were thrown into Israeli culture and, personally, I loved it. The extreme differences yet deep connections allowed me to better understand Israel and created an amazing experience with the twenty other fellows in the group that will only continue to fill us with awe.

Flight & First Night in Israel!

July 19

8:08 a.m

Written by Emily Morgan

Adventure: Day Three

Days one and two bled together with the flight. It was long awaited and greatly appreciated after a ten hour delay at JFK. Anxiety and excitement had risen sharply on the quick flight to NY, seeing as it was a brief preface to the 12 hour flight ahead of us. It got really exhausting to be so excited for so long but it also made everything we did more fun. For example; going through customs was a blast! Getting drilled about our individual Jewish background was intense and pretty scary looking back, but while it was happening it felt like  a game of trivia! 

            Terminal 4 at JKF quickly became a second home for the group; we got comfy. Really comfy. After a group chow-down at Buffalo Wild Wings, it was only a short time until we had spread ourselves and our belongings all over Gate B 27. Being the spunky group of leaders that we are, it wasn’t hard for us to entertain ourselves. Whether it was playing a few intense rounds of cards or just following the flow of the moving sidewalks, we enjoyed our last sane hours. Luckily, we all kept track of everything and easily boarded the plane. I thought that was just as excited as anyone could ever get! I was terribly wrong.

            The flight itself was surprisingly enjoyable; the food wasn’t too bad, the seats were moderately comfortable, and the ride didn’t feel like it was longer than a good night’s sleep. The atmosphere of the plane was fascinating- everyone there was headed to Israel, but not one person looked or acted alike. We all shared this common interest; this belonging or calling to the Holy Land. Looking back; we were all in a pretty cool situation- our plane was full of Jewish people from all different denominations. Every few hours, many of the conservative or orthodox men would stand in the front or back of the isles and pray. It was so interesting to watch them and notice all the differences between myself and everyone else even though we practice the same religion. Without constant prayer the flight was pretty boring so it’s a good thing that The Incredibles was playing during the flight. We all needed that.

            Upon landing at Ben Gurion, the group’s excitement rose, as well as our level of exhaustion. The airport was enormous and beautiful. It was crazy to be conscious of my location… We were finally in Israel!

              Because of our 3 hour delay, we needed to speed through passport checks and baggage claim. Shorty after, we withdrew shkalim and met our wonderful tour guide, Arava and the JCs (and Andrew from our group). Heading straight towards Jaffa, the bus ride was a buzz with excitement and nerves. My eyes were practically glued to the window and my hands to my camera. A new thing we have been doing here is frequently asking each other, “Wait- where are we?” to which one would reply “ISRAEL” and both parties would scream and jump around.

            Jaffa is a beautiful city. The buildings are works of art and the atmosphere is incredible. Many were very nervous about the Blackout restaurant while it hadnt really occurred to me to be skeptical of a restaurant where I cant see what I’m eating. We chose our meals before we were lead into the dark and were put into groups for dining. I have never been in such a dark place. It was weird to close my eyes tightly and open them to see just the same thing. Once I got my meal, I was  ready to experience it truly. It was maybe the most delicious thing I had ever eaten. It was gnocchi with mushroom and cheese. I would have probably judged the meal by the way it looked if I had been able to see it. The food was so incredible that I had a dream about it last night. The dessert was just as good. It was nice to embarrass myself and have no one see how wildly I was enjoying my meal

            After the experience, we walked out to The Platform; an outdoor market. It felt really Israeli, I think. Everyone there looked like there were having  a great time. There was a live band that we all danced around a little to outside. My face still hurts from smiling so much last night.

            Next, we sat by the water to have our opening ceremony and write about our day. We went to Kfar Yarok, a youth village. It was really nice and so great to shower and get some real sleep.

I can’t wait to see what today brings us all! So far, it is undoubtedly the best trip of my life!

A Solid Mix of Law, Protests, and Japanese Dancing

Sunday we were lucky enough to meet with Anna Oliker, who is the party manager of the Israeli government party Yisrael Beiteinu. In this past election, Yisrael Beiteinu ran on a joint ticket with Likud, and together they make up the majority of the Knesset. Unfortunately getting in to the Knesset was more challanging than predicted, so we only got to meet with her for a few minutes. It was so interesting hearing what someone who is so high up in the Israeli government does on a daily basis. She is also a Haredi woman, which added a different perspective to the experience. 

After meeting with her, we took a tour of the Knesset and learned all about the history. This experience really fit in with what the Diller program is all about, as we were delving deeply into how the government works. It was very weird hearing the vast differences between the Israeli and American governments, especially about how central religion is in Israel, while in America we pride ourselves on the separation between "Synagogue" and State. This was a great intersection of all four pillars of Diller: Leadership, Social Justice, Jewish Identity, and Israel! 

Sunday night, we went to Ben Yeduda street for the last time, and as we were walking through the streets, something peculiar caught our eye. Over 70 Japanese people were dancing and singing in a somewhat organized fashion in the middle of Ben Yeduda street! They were so energetic, and also seemed very passionate about Israel. Obviously, Andrew felt moved along with a few British boys, to join right in the festivities! It was truly a bizarre and unique experience. 

Monday morning we woke up at 5:30am!! Insane, we know. I take all the blame (sorry Andrew!), but it turned out to be very worthwhile. We walked to a park where we boarded buses with around 250-300 woman and a handful of men as well. This group is called Women of the Wall, and it is an organization that has been fighting to change the laws surrounding what women can and cannot do at the Kotel. They have existed for close to 25 years, but recently have grown tremendiously, raised a lot of attention in the media, and have even sucessfully made it legal for Women to pray with talit, kippot, and tfillian at the Kotel! However, it is still illegal for women to read from a Torah on the womens side of the kotel. We were escorted with a heavy police escort to the Kotel. The streets before the gate were lines with police, holding Haredi men and women back from attacking the buses. A few Haredi women actually went up to the police on motorcycles, and started screaming at them and hitting them! When we got to the Kotel, we got off the bus and walked through the gates. We couldn't go all the way to the Womens side (as the group ussually does), and had to stop right outside of the Kotel. There were 100s of Haredi men and woman (mainly men) standing behind the police barriers and yelling at us! We started praying the Rosh Chodesh (new month) service. Many women were wearing talit, kippot and tfillian. Throughout the entire service, the Haredi men were screaming, yelling things such as "Just get out of here!" "Because of you the Meshiach wont come!" "You're Amalek!" "You're all Nazis!" "You are the reason that people have cancer!" And much more that we didn't understand. They threw a few eggs at us, as well as some open bottles of water. We later read in the newspaper, although we didn't actually see it, that one Haredi man attacked one of the men praying in comradory with us and a Haredi man threw stones at someone. Two Haredi people, one man and one women, were arrested. Although we weren't allowed to bring a Torah, we did the Torah service using a Chumash instead. One young girl had her bat-mitzvah during this service! She was so brave, and read right through the vicious chants, egg throwing, and whistle blowing of the Haredim. 

We later learned that the reason we could not go to the womans side of the Kotel for the service was because thousands of Religious seminary girls had flooded the womans side before we got there, as their own organized protest to our service. We can't even imagine what this would have been like just a short few weeks ago, before the change in law and police support. We never felt in danger, because we have never seen that many police in one place before. There were police in uniforms of all colors in front of us, behind us, to our sides, and above us. After the service, we were again escorted out on buses by police. 

It was an experience that neither of us will ever forget. 

We then said goodbye to Jerusalem, and got on a bus to Tel-Aviv. After a short rest at the hotel, we went to the only Eritrean Womans Community Center. This is a population that escapes to Israel seeking refuge, but the Israeli government wont recognize them or give them any help. This center was set up last year to provide a day care service during the day (many of the babies were concieved through rape) and to provide services such as english and hebrew lessons and parenting courses for the women at night. We went to volunteer with the children, and were a bit taken back by the poor conditions and understaffing of the center. There were around 30 babies at the one room center, and they told us that most other day cares they could go to had around 60 babies in the same sized room. To be perfectly honest, we were both very uncomfortable the whole time because the care takers did not know english or hebrew, and it was so disorganized that we didn't know what to do with ourselves and there crying babies that we found ourselves overwhelmed. This experience reminded us how lucky we are to have grown up with everything we have. It also showed us that not all community service is enjoyable, and that it is okay to admit that you had a bad experience. 

This morning we went to Nachalat Benyamin, a street where every Tuesday and Friday local artists set up booths and sell their work. It was great and we saw so many beautiful things! And now off to the beach!! 

-Liat and Andrew

--
-
Liat

Caliber 3 and the Old City

Yesterday, after a lovely pastry filled breakfast we headed out to the Gush Etzion which is a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. There, we visit the Caliber3 anti-terror training center. Calliber3 is one of 6 privately owned shooting ranges in Israel, but it is the only one that the government associates with and uses to train anti-terror personnel. Calliber3 trains anti-terror personnel, ranging from mall and school security personnel to body guards to elite anti-terror forces. We participated in a two hour course for tourists, where they taught us all about the work they do to help protect Israel and the Jewish people. We learned all about their specific weapons, their tactics, and their training mechanisms. Then, our instructor, Eitan, taught us some basic firearm skills. We practiced with wooden fake guns, and then had the opportunity to shoot a baretta .22 caliber pistol and a ruger sniper riffle. One at a time, we shot at targets with Eitan by our side instructing us. Liat shot 7/8 while Andrew shot 5/8. In the shooting competition with the other tourists, our group triumphed.  

It was really interesting learning about the security measures that are being taken in Israel. Being in the West Bank was also a totally new experience for both of us, and we were surprised by the fact that our taxi rolled right through the checkpoint and there was no security checking anything. It was a weird feeling, and we both had very mixed emotions about it. The contrast with our experience at B'Tselem was prominent and at the forefront of our minds. 

After this adventure filled morning, we went to Machene Yehuda, the shuk in Jerusalem. Machene Yehuda is basically two narrow roads filled with little booths selling spices, fruits, vegetables, pastries, cookies, and so much more. It's crazy on Friday afternoons, because everyone is coming out to prepare for Shabbat. Everything is so cheap and delicious!! We found ourselves buying more and more as we pushed our way through the street. It was so packed that at some points we couldn't even walk! 

We went to the Kotel for the first time Friday afternoon where we ran into Molly, one of the young adults who will be coaching the fellows on their Tikkun Olam projects! Small world! Andrew got into some energetic dancing with a group of religious men, while I watched with the other women. 

Today, we enjoyed our Shabbas sleep, and slept in late and had our delicious food that we had gotten at Machene Yehuda. We went back to the old city and explored on our own, and then took a free walking tour of the four quarters. This tour took us all over the old city, and we learned so much about the history. It was great! Can't wait to go back with the fellows!! 

-Andrew and Liat

Deep Into Israel

Today we woke up very early, again, and decided to walk to the old city and explore the Jewish and Arab shuk. Sadly, very few places were open at 8am, but we got to go up to some roofs and see a great view! 

In the afternoon, after getting lost once again, we met up with Shachar from Israel Extreme. He took us to a cave near Beit Shemesh that was very off the beaten track, and we repelled into it. It was just a small hole in the mountain, and when you looked down it, all you saw was black. It was a truly amazing experience to go down into the dark depths of an unknown cave putting all of our trust into a man we had met twenty minutes before. In the cave, he took out a little stove and made us tea from spices that we drank with cookies. As we called through many narrow tunnels and explored the caves, Shachar explained to us the things we were seeing, he archeological evidence, and told us many stories. 

These specific caves that we crawled through were caves that the Jews build to hide from the Romans (Hannukah story). We saw the strategic structure the caves had that the Jews had thought out, including the difficult jumps from tunnel to tunnel instead of doors. We also saw the holes that the Romans had made in the tunnels to stick knives through and the fire damage that is thought to be from the Romans setting fires in the tunnels to force the Jews to run out the other side. Learning the history of the caves really took the experience to a new level, and it morphed from being just a fun outing to a meaningful adventure. 

After we made it out of the cave, Shachar took us to a village close to Modin where Jews, Christians, and Arabs all live, and we went to a very authentic, not touristy, restaurant owned by Arabs. Shachar ordered three desserts for us, one jelatin, rose petals, and coconut thing, one goat cheese and spice thing, and Baklavah. The first two were disgusting, but it was a great experience to eat at a place that wasn't on Ben Yehuda and that didn't cater to tourists. 

All in all, it was a great third day in Israel and we can't wait to see how the rest of the trip will turn out!

Liat and Andrew

Social Justice, Human Rights, and a Massive, Terrifying Spider

Today we met with Anat who works at a social justice organization called Shatil (partially funded by the New Israel Fund) that focuses on promoting human rights for all Israelis. They do work with gender issues, poverty, Arab/Israel relations, and much more. Anat is the coordinator for a social justice fellowship that takes post-college Jewish adults to Israel for a year to intern at a NGO of their choice. Nadav, a fellow who we were privileged to meet with, has spent the past 10 months working at an organization called Sikkuy, which focuses on equal rights and treatment of Arab Israelis. The most interesting and unique thing about this organization is that it is run and staffed by an equal amount of Jewish Israelis and Arab Israelis. Every single project they work on they all agree upon, and they have both Jews and Arabs working together. 

After learning about the fellowship and Nadav's experience, we headed over to an organization called B'Tselem. On our way there, we decided to walk about two blocks past it, and were able to see the fence separating Israel from the West Bank. Bt'selem is a human rights organization focused on restoring the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We met with an International Relations Associate, Noam, who told us all about the organizations work. We learned so much about the West Bank and the living conditions there. One of the things that we found most interesting and innovative was a project they have been working on for a few years now, where they give out hundreds of video cameras to Palestinians in the West Bank and asked them to record parts of their daily lives, including injustices committed towards them by the IDF and Jewish settlers. She showed us a few videos that stunned us, and explained that their organization simply believes that everyone is created "bt'selem elohim- in God's image" and therefore Israel must push to restore the human rights of Palestinians, as well as the legality and accountability on the IDK and Jewish settlers. All of their research, as well as videos and interactive maps, can be found on their website. 

Then, we headed over to the biblical zoo to have some fun and look at the cute animals! After getting COMPLETELY lost in Jerusalem, we finally found our way! There we saw some really adorable animals, as well as the biggest spider in the world- Andrew was terrified. 

All in all, we had a great day, and are very happy to still be awake at 6pm! Dinner and bed soon. Stay tuned for more tomorrow about our adventures rappelling into caves and exploring them. Peace.

-Liat and Andrew 

Sikkuy: http://www.sikkuy.org.il/english/home.html 

B'Tselem: http://www.btselem.org/

Good morning from Jerusalem!

3:40am here. Been up since 1:30, watched a movie, checked out twitter, and are about to watch a second movie. Gotta love jetlag. After a really easy flight we arrived here in Israel at 5:25am, and got to the hotel so early that there was no one at the reception desk! After a brief chill sesh, we finally were able to check in and went exploring on Ben Yehuda, so early in the morning that most places weren't even open yet. Too exhausted to do anything, we decided to grab a bite to eat, hang out in a cute park near the hotel, and try to stay out as late as possible to fight jetlag. We lasted to 3pm and were fast asleep by 5:45pm. Today we are excited to meet with a woman from the New Israel Fund and a social justice fellow, and then go to the Bt'selem office to learn about their organization. More on that later. 

Andrew and Liat